


Love Sought

by snowynight



Category: Howl no Ugoku Shiro | Howl's Moving Castle, Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare
Genre: Character Study, Crossover, Fantasy, Gen, Magic, Mystery, Mystery Stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-11
Updated: 2011-07-11
Packaged: 2017-10-21 06:40:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/222051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowynight/pseuds/snowynight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Howl's weird. Things go wrong. Sophie fixes it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Sought

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lynndyre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynndyre/gifts).



Sophie was cleaning the castle when there was a knock to the door. Howl was as usual shutting himself in his room, and Michael was doing some errant. It was up to her to answer the door.  
When Sophie opened the door, she saw a girl definitely not from the town. Her clothes were ruffled but expensive. The girl had black circle under her eyes, looking tired and worried. Then she said, "Please let me in, and close the door please. I need help."

Out of sympathy, Sophie did as what the girl said, led her to a chair in the lobby and poured a cup of tea for her. Then she asked, "How can I help you?"

"My... two male friends behave really abnormally. I wonder if they were under a charm."

"Tell me the whole story. But first, tell me your name."

"I'm Helena. I found that things were weird a week ago. My two friends suddenly gave me flowers, waited under my balcony to sing songs to me, and generally acted like being in love with me. At first I thought they were playing a prank on me, but not only didn't they stop, but also their behaviour worsened. Yesterday they said they wanted to duel to death for my hand. It took me a whole day to disabuse the notion, and they even wouldn't leave my house. I only escape with my friend's help. Actually it's stretching my friendship with her, because she likes one of the friends. But I didn't do anything! I swear."

"It can be that your two male friends just fall in love with you. Love makes people fool."

"A week ago they're both crazy about my friend. There was no way it 'd change overnight. Besides these two are good friends and suddenly they can hold each other at sword point. It just doesn't make sense."

Sophie could agree with her that it did sound weird. Anyway a client was a good thing. "Why don't you wait here and I'll try to reach the wizard?"

"Thank you very much!" Helena said.

Sophie walked to Howl's room and knocked. There was no response. Knowing Howl's temperament, Sophie opened the door and said, "You have a client."

"I can't deal with a client! Look at my experiment! Ask Michael!"

"Michael's not here and you should not stay idle anyway. The experiment can wait and you can go with me."

"Well, tell me about the client then. I don't like boring case."  
Sophie told him the client's story and he froze when he heard the client's name. She paused in her narration and was about to ask why, but then he said, "No, I won't touch the client."

"Why?"

"No why. Tell the client not to bother. I don't handle the case," Then Howl turned to his experiment and ignored Sophie. Sophie sensed that something was wrong. But seeing that Howl had no intention to continue the conversation, she left and put it in her heart. She returned to the client and apologetically told her that Howl wasn't on her case, but inside she decided to help and find out what was going on.

Sophie followed her client and saw that she was ambushed by two men throwing flowers bouquet at her face. “Choose me!” they both shouted. 

“Stay away from me! It’s not normal for you, and you’ll soon regret when whatever over you both comes off.”

“Only my love toward you is the charm,” one of them said.

It was getting ridiculous. Sophie could understand why Helena was so frustrated about them so she thought of a way to drive them away. She threw the sneeeze powders Michael made for fun at them, and grabbed Helena's hand to get her away when those two were distracted.

When they were gone, Helena thanked Sophie. “Thank for your help.”

“The two men were really ridiculous. I would like to help you find out why.”

“But you said the wizard...”

“The wizard may not be in his right mind now, but he’ll change. Meanwhile, let’s meet at the castle.”

“All right.”

Sophie and Helena returned to the castle. Michael was chatting with Calcifer by the side of it. Sophie saw them and asked, “Do you know what magic or potion’ll make a man suddenly fall in love with a woman?”

“There’re many. Why do you ask?” Michael asked. 

“Our client here need the help to get rid of two unsuitable suitors.”

“Well, may not be two...” Helena muttered.

Michael said, “Why not ask Howl?”

“Howl’s in the wrong mood now.”

“All right. I’ll check the books. You can wait here.” 

Sophie saw that Helena still looked worry and tried to comfort her. “Don’t be deceived by Michael’s age. Michael ‘s a brilliant student of the Wizard. You needn’t worry.”

“Thank you. I just wonder what my two friends’re getting up to, honestly.”

“They’ll be all right.”

Michael returned and said, “It ‘s possible that they’re influenced by a love potion.”

“Can you tell me more about it?” Sophie asked.

“It’s made by the faeries. The victims of love potion’d fall in love with the one he saw immediately.”

“Oh I see. No wonder...” Helena said.   

“How do we undo the effect?”

“Only the faeries can undo the effect.”

“Then we’ll find the faeries.”

“Be careful. Faeries’re fickle and unreliable.”

It sounded kind of like Howl, actually.  “Can you tell me how to find them?”

“You have to go in the forest to find them. They usually appear at night. But ordinary people usually can’t see them because they’ve glamour.”

“How can I see through the glamour?”

“I’m not up to it. You have to ask Howl.”

“All right. Helena, please wait here. I’ll go find the Wizard.”

“Good luck!”

Sophie opened Howl’s room door and asked, “Howl, are you done yet?”

“Perhaps. Why ask?”

“I need your help to find faeries.”

“Why!” Howl shouted.

Sophie got suspicious. Howl seemed far too reactive then normal. “Tell me. What’ve you done recently?”

“Nothing.”

“Be honest with me.”

Finally Howl surrendered and tell her the story. When he was visiting the Faerie King, the Faerie King asked him for a favour: to help a couple to get together. Being a bit drunk, Howl agreed and put love potion to a man’s eyes so he’d love a woman called Helena. But Howl mistook the person to drop the love potion to. Panic, he dropped the potion to the right person and fled.

“So you cause the whole thing.”

“You shouldn’t say that.”

“Now, straight up and do the right thing: to get thing back to normal.”

“But...”

“Howl!”

“All right.”

Howl did what he said and undo the effect of love potion. The two men seemed to be waken up from a dream and didn’t quite remember what had been happened. 

Helena thanked Sophie but she looked a bit sad.

“What’s the matter?”

“I like one of them but they both only love my friend, so... I’m glad things return to normal though.”

“Oh. Helena,” Sophie held her hand.

“It’s all right. Love’s like this. Thanks for your help.” Helena smiled and left.

Sophie looked at her back shadow for a long time and only then returned to her work.


End file.
